David Marshall Hunt
Mystery/Author
New Novel June 30, 2021
Constance A. Hunt’s Preface to Four Wheels [A 1950s teenage saga]
Tim Holcomb, Mark Easton, and the Fisher twins have been pals all through grade school. They are together so much that once at a school picnic, someone in fun called them "The Four Wheels." The boys liked it, and when they enrolled at Wilson High, it seemed a capital idea to launch themselves into high school as the Four Wheels.
They thought of themselves as a four-wheeled buggy. Still, this allusion didn’t precisely fit because a carriage required a horse. The boys had no intention of ever adding a fifth to their group. They like being exclusively four. Unanimously they agree, early in their freshman year, that high school is a bore.
"Action is what this school needs. And we'll provide some!"
They begrudgingly realize a newcomer can boost their chances at winning. However, things fall apart as the Four Wheels find other interests than sports and they ride the rollercoaster of their teen years growing apart only to learn the lessons of teamwork. As they each find their own goals, winning becomes possible.
FOUR WHEELS: A 1950s teen-age saga is an effort to contribute a piece of literature which presents sports and music as contingent parts of human experience and assigns to teachers and parents the privileged and rewarding role they occupy in the lives of their young people as they come of age.
The story may also help today’s youth better understand that their grandparents and parents were once teenagers.
NEW Series: A Family Gathering Mystery
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (A family gathering mystery) by David Marshall Hunt is a mystery/ psychological thriller novel. This is the first book in a new series entitled A Family Gathering Mystery. These novels celebrate the lost family tradition of gathering for the holidays and for special occasions to dine and tell stories, to pass on to the next generation, or to leave a legacy.
Childhood secrets are hidden in the memory-attic of Professor Daniel Jonson. The mystery begs an answer to, where is the best place to hide a family secret? Lost family and lost memories collide in this story set in the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s interrupted by war and continuing in the 1990s. The story features a twist on the family relationship theme of guilt and redemption.
Synopsis
Shortly before the war, the Jonson’s adopted three orphans, one Chinese and two Japanese. The orphans attended their first family gathering in December of 1941. Extended family members came from Seattle and cities on the Pacific coast, gathering for the Christmas holidays at the family farm in the Spokane River Valley. The gathering was an opportunity to renew family ties and partake of Grandma Jonson’s fabulous cooking and sumptuous pies. Uncle Paul tells the children scary stories and young Danny Jonson is his apprentice storyteller. The gathering is interrupted when they hear the voice of President Roosevelt responding to the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. In February Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, ordering the relocation and incarceration of over 70,000 Americans of Japanese heritage. The family faced a crisis.
Tormented by forgotten and repressed memories of his childhood, Daniel is racked with guilt over failing to keep a promise to his favorite storytelling uncle, to find and reunite the extended family after the war. During the war he spread “The Chinaman’s Story” to all the children in the neighborhood in an effort at keeping trespassers off the family farm. But there is a mystery behind why his uncle insisted he promise to tell the story, a secret that evades him.
Fifty years after his story telling uncle is killed and his extended family scattered by the war. Daniel’s mother dies and the family farm he grew up on is put up for auction. Compelled to return home from a life of wandering and adventure, he turns to Dr. Claire Parsons, a clinical psychologist and his main squeeze. She comforts him and suggests a course of action to unlock his repressed memories. They have three months before the auction to journey to places from his childhood to uncover memories that will disclose the family secret which holds the key to Daniel keeping his fifty-year-old promise. Perhaps he’ll redeem his lost sense of family, maybe restore the family gathering tradition for a new generation.
Coming November-December, 2021
Under the Protection of Moon: The Emperor's Secret Letter
Under the Protection of Moon: The Emperor’s Secret Letter is the second book in the series A Family Gathering Mystery by David Marshall Hunt. It is a mystery/ psychological thriller novel that features a recently discovered secret letter sent by Japanese Emperor Hirohito to the commanding officer of Japanese forces in Manchukuo in the 1930s.
Professor Daniel Jonson from Strawberry Rhubarb Pie has recently come into possession of a letter written in kanji. He needs someone with linguistics skills to translate a letter from Emperor Hirohito to the Japanese Occupation Forces in the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1930.
The Jesuit priest who is translating the letter mysteriously disappears while on his daily run along the edge of the University of Washington campus. Father Elly Kibet is a soft-spoken former world class Kenyan runner. He has left the intelligence business for a life as a priest and linguistics scholar. He is affectionately known to parishioners and students as Father L and the police are investigating his disappearance.
Father L is a former colleague of Government Intelligence agent and assassin ‘Reddy’ Burton who cannot reveal their past relationship to the Seattle Police. After meeting with the SPD, Reddy finds a message on his answering machine which was sent 24 hours earlier by Father L: “Meet me at 3pm tomorrow. I recently met with a ghost. I will introduce you to a friend who has a problem with a secret document.” Reddy shows up to meet the friend even though Father L is missing.
Professor Daniel warns Reddy about the Chō’s, a powerful Japanese family. Former Manchukuo Japanese Occupation Army officer, Lt. Colonel Chō was the first officer to see and record the Emperor’s secret letter. He was also the Chō family patriarch and public knowledge of his role in what this letter reveals would destroy the family legacy. The Cho’s will stop at nothing to destroy all knowledge of the secret letter.
Reddy tracks the ghost, into the Idaho forest to rescue Father L; however, they are not yet safe. They need a plan to keep the Chō’s from killing Professor Jonson and his entire family for what they know.
Flower Girl
A Burton Family Mystery
What happens when a government scientist with top secret clearance teams up with a rogue CIA agent, who happens to be her father?
As a kidnapped orphan, Shannon Lee is hired out as a flower girl on Cheju-do Island, Korea the honeymoon capital of Asia. At 12 she is rescued from being sold as a child bride. Her rescuer is a rogue CIA Agent, who returns her to the USA to get an education. At 26 she is a scientist and linguist with a top secret clearance working for a government contractor when her rogue agent father suggests that they start a family business as assassins for hire. An unexpected turn of events on an assignment sends them back to Cheju-do where she is faced with the difficult choice of service to family and community or revenge.